


The Big Sleep

by sillyboyblue



Category: The Hitcher (1986)
Genre: Death Fic, Death Sentence, Execution, John Dies, M/M, Songfic, electric chair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-18
Updated: 2017-01-18
Packaged: 2018-09-18 11:18:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9382172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sillyboyblue/pseuds/sillyboyblue
Summary: A songfic based on the song "The Big Sleep" by Murder By Death





	

Jim knew that they would be caught eventually. But he never thought that it would happen so soon.

_At the end of the road he calls everyone home_

_And the fire will consume us_

_Striking through to the bone_

They made a mistake, they always do in the end. The police tracked them down and caught them both. Jim had tried to run. He heard John yelling then he was shot in the back.

_At the end of the road you will soon hear him call_

_As the congregations crumble and the chapels will fall_

Hopefully -- or not, he survived. His first fear was that they had executed John while he was in a coma. He was told that they needed him for the trial. Jim was the one closest to John.

_And the taste on your tongue_

_Well it comes yeah it comes_

_With the bittersweet pang of remorse and pain_

Jim knew there was no way that he could defend John. He was guilty of at least fifty murders. Fifty ! Jim could not believe he had shared his life with a man who committed fifty murders but never tried to hurt him.

_Till the judgment is made_

_The prosecution's won_

_The gavel has won and justice is done_

The trial lasted for hours. All the families and friends of the victims kept telling how John Ryder had ruined their lives and that they wanted him dead. Jim knew how wrong it was, because he had killed some of those people's loved ones. But he was not on the same bench as John, since he had been given a diagnostic of severe Stockholm syndrome. Bullshit, he thought. He was not sick, and he truly loved John. But among the crowd of people in the room, he noticed his parents. His heart skipped a beat. Please, no.

_The courtroom clears and I'm left alone on the bench_

_My Jim Halsey gone along with my defense_

_The bailiff leads me back to my cell_

_Like the riverman ferrying me to hell_

Jim left the room in a hurry when he found out what John had done. His parents wept as they told the jury about the loss of their oldest son. Jim could not believe it. John would have never killed his brother. When John was escorted out of the room, with shackles around his wrists and ankles, he could not look at Jim, but he felt his stare on his back. John did not look because he knew that he would snap if he did. Jim wished he could have spat in his face one last time.

_I can't blame them, no_

_To hate me for what I've done_

_I hear them whispering in the hall_

_You live and die by the gun_

_All I can do is sit here and pray_

_I'll be forgiven on judgment day_

John did not believe in God, but he prayed all night in his cell, listing the names of all his victims, and apologized to all of them. His second prayer went to the families and friends whose lives he had broken. His final prayer went to Jim, whom he betrayed in the worst possible way.

_Tell my Jim in our yard buried underneath the pine_

_Theres a shoebox full of money of which I never earned a dime_

_Use it to start over the way things should have been_

_Live honest, love again_

On the day of his execution, he gave his final wishes before they covered his face. He saw that Jim was there, and he burst into tears when he realized that he would never see him again and that in those last moments, Jim hated him.

_Tell my Jim, tell him please_

_I never meant for this to happen_

He wept and wept and wept, and everyone was satisfied with this. The monster was finally crying. He only got what he deserved after all. His last thought went to Jim.

_When they flip the switch please do not stay_

_I couldn't bear for you to remember me this way_


End file.
